October 6 2005, 13:56 Agrarian Marketing Project

There are favorable weather conditions for onion production in Odesa oblast

The weather is rather warm and dry practically on all the territory of Odesa oblast. Onion producers are able to finish harvesting and dry the gathered onion qualitatively, so it will be stored much better. All large onion producers in the region are going to use this advantage. This weather is also favorable for bell pepper and egg-plant production, as the fruiting period is prolonged for these warm-requiring crops, the yield increases finally.

At the same time, lack of rainfalls led to the considerably low level of moisture in soil that affects the root crops - carrot and red beets. Those producers who do not use drip irrigation suffer the most. Absent rainfalls are most harmful for grain crop producers. According to the provided information, because of the extremely low moisture content in soil many producers are waiting for rain and postponing the planting of winter crops; some of them decided to give up winter crops planting at all. They hope to plant the available acreage by spring varieties next year, but these varieties are known for low yields. Some market players think that for now this situation influences significantly and negatively the perspectives of grain crop yield 2006 in Odesa oblast.